From Sky News UK

A mother demands answers at an inquest into how student Hannah Defoe was electrocuted during a Caribbean holiday.3:57pm UK, Thursday 22 August 2013

Aspiring actress Hannah was on holiday as a reward for her college work

The mother of England footballer Jermain Defoe’s cousin, who was electrocuted in a hotel swimming pool in St Lucia, has begged to be told the “truth” about her daughter’s death.

Hannah Defoe, 20, was killed after diving into the water while on holiday on the Caribbean island last summer – just three weeks before her 21st birthday.

Hope Defoe, 50, clutched a picture of her daughter as she told an inquest relatives had been fobbed off with ‘”excuses” from St Lucian authorities for more than a year.

She wept as she described how relatives had battled for more than an hour to rescue her daughter from the electrified water.

In her quest for answers Mrs Defoe emailed an official in the island’s tourism department.

She wrote: “You were all so kind and gracious when we were in St Lucia, promising to help us, but we have been abandoned.

“We haven’t even been told if anybody has been charged. Look your daughter in the eye and then imagine her electrocuted and lying in a pool, at the bottom, for an hour and a half while you and others are suffering electric shocks as you try to rescue her.

“Now imagine nobody tells you how or why that happened but fobs you off with polite excuses.”

Ms Defoe, an aspiring actress, was on holiday as a reward for her hard work during her first year at the Performers College in Essex when she was killed.

Tottenham Hotspur striker Defoe was on the club’s pre-season tour of America when he was told about her death. He was allowed to return to the UK to be with his family.

Hannah’s parents, who travelled to St Lucia the day after the tragedy, were assured by senior officials that a full and proper investigation would take place.

They were told the electricity board had previously informed the hotel owner of the existence of a fault but that it had not been fixed

But the findings from any investigation by authorities in the Caribbean have not been disclosed to the Defoe family.

The coroner adjourned proceedings until next March to await the receipt of vital documents from St Lucia.

The student’s death is one of a number of losses suffered by footballer Defoe, 30.

He flew home from England’s Euro 2012 camp in Poland last June following the death of his 49-year-old father Jimmy from throat cancer.

In 2009 his half-brother Jade, 26, died after falling into a coma following a street attack in east London.

For more on this story go to:

http://news.sky.com/story/1131955/jermain-defoe-cousins-pool-death-a-mystery